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5 Android settings you don’t know about

Google’s Android operating system powers some of our favourite phones: the Samsung Galaxy 4 and 4 Active, the HTC One, The Nexus 4… While each is subtly different, all are underpinned by the same operating system.

Set up restricted profiles to create separate accounts for your children or work, for example.

And Android is more powerful than you realise. Here, for example, are five settings and features that we bet you didn’t know about.

Have a look and see if your phone has them (not all handsets will) and have fun.

1. Manage multiple users

In the latest version of Android, there’s a new setting for Users. This enables you to set up secondary accounts on your phone or tablet which don’t have access to the same features.

So you can create a user account for your kids, for example, which restricts them from accessing your work email.

2. Change the keyboard

Under the Language and Input settings you can switch between different keyboard layouts and styles, or go back to the default if you’ve installed a new one like Swiftkey from Play.

3. Get illuminated notifications

Under the Settings> Display options there’s a check box for ‘Pulse notification light’. This will make the phone’s LED flash when you get an alert.

4. Enable developer options

If you’ve got a recent device, you might notice that there’s no Settings dialogue for ‘Developer Options’. You can turn these on by going to Settings>About Phone and tapping the line marked ‘Build Number’ seven times.

This gives you access to a whole extra suite of tools for tweaking your phone, but be warned – they can do damage too.

5. Force anti-aliasing in games

Under Developer Options, there’s a box which allows you to turn on anti-aliasing for better looking games. It’s called ‘Force 4x MSAA’ and makes edges look sharper around objects. There is a performance penalty for this though, so be prepared to turn it off again.